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The History of Limerick

The breathtaking and picturesque town of Limerick in Maine State in the United States is a thinly populated town that is located along the White Mountain foothills in York County. It is one of the fastest developing towns in York County and its natural beauty, rolling hills and pleasant climate has attracted more and more people to settle down in this wonderful town. The town no doubt is growing at a rapid pace. Its 2010 census reported that there were 2892 people living in this town, whereas the figure was just 2240 in the 2000 census. The number of families has risen to 801 in 2010 from 607 in 2000 and this figure is now increasing rapidly.

Limerick town was one of the towns of the “Five Ossipee Towns” called by the Indians. A trader from Kittery bought this town from the Indians in 1668. Half interest of this town was conveyed to Major Nicholas Shapleigh by Small in 1669. The descendants of Small and the Major decided to give Biddeford’s lawyer James Sullivan one half of the 13,000 acre of land in Limerick town, if he was ready to defend the descendant’s claims. Sullivan’s friends and his associates settled in the area and each of his friends and associates signed his name on a lead plaque and deposited it on the bank of the Little Ossipee River. This plaque is now a property of the Maine Historical Society. The hard work and the character of Sullivan was rewarded by other settlers through a good gesture. They named the Limerick town after the birthplace of Sullivan’s father that was in Ireland.

little Ossipee river

The Limerick town was incorporated on March 6, 1787. The village started to develop along the old Sokokis trail. It was gifted with very good soil and hence prompted the early settlers to do farming. Nine out of ten people that lived in Limerick town took up farming and it was the main occupation of the people of this Maine town. Their main income was from selling dairy products, hay and cattle. As the town started to develop, the businesses also started to diversify and other businesses like furniture stores, blacksmith shops, hat manufacturing, harness making and shoe manufacturers also mushroomed in early 1800s. The Limerick Manufacturing Co was started in the year 1846 by James Bradbury, and this company was bought by Joshua Holland in 1857. The town of Limerick became more popular due to the demand of the Holland blankets all across the country during the Civil war. The blankets were manufactured by The Limerick Manufacturing Co. The lower village of Limerick was named after Holland and it was called Hollandville which was later changed to Deepvale during the 1920s, 30s and 40s.

Even before the Limerick town was incorporated in 1787, the citizens of Limerick gave huge importance to education. The people of the town raised a sum of 20 pounds in 1775 during a town meeting for school keeping. Now, Limerick is one of the popular towns in Maine that has joined the SAD #57 with other five neighboring towns to provide good and quality education for the children. The town once again created history when it raised $1,262,792 in 2001 as its share of ‘school keeping’ in the district.

There is so much more history to this small town of Limerick in Maine. The history has seen many popular and famous citizens and a lot of ordinary folks who carry out their ordinary routine day in and day out. Limerick is known to always make history and it is still in the process of doing so.